Best Friends
by FateWorseThanDeath
Summary: If there was one person Naruto did not want to see, it was Sasuke. Especially not when he was helpless and waiting for the organization that captured him to interrogate him again. Sasuke is about to surprise him. not yaoi. R&R.


_**DISCLAIMER: DNON**__**.**_

Found this hiding in my flashdrive when I was clearing out older files.

* * *

_Thoughts_

"Speech"

_**Flashback**_

_**[Thoughts in flashback]**_

_**"Speech in flashback"**_

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He supposed he'd been overconfident when he took the mission.

And excited. Really excited, for it had been his first S-Rank mission as a jonin that Tsunade had given him. He'd been begging for one for months now. Literally.

And he'd screwed up royally.

All he'd had to do was a little spying on an organization rumored to be led by an Uchiha. That was it! But someone in the building had recognized his disguised shadow clone, and had sent people out to look for him. Naruto hadn't even had a moment's notice to prepare himself for an attack and had been found. Despite the fact that he had concealed his chakra to the point where even _Sakura_ wouldn't have been able to find him, and despite the fact that he'd had the very best barrier jutsus one could learn set up in a perimeter around his hiding place.

The bastards had used weapons slathered with chakra suppressing drugs on him.

He _hated_ it when the enemy did that. He considered it cheating, though he wouldn't deny that the weapons were effective, especially since they'd even suppressed Kyuubi's chakra.

He'd had to endure several hours of torture before they threw him into this cold, mostly dark cell, which lacked even a window to the outside. The only light came through the small—very small—barred window set within the only entrance to the room: a granite slab that had been carefully shaped into a door, albeit a heavy one. But this small amount of light was all Naruto needed. He examined the cell carefully once more, blue eye taking in every inch of the confined space.

It was a five foot by five-foot cell, which meant he wouldn't be able to stretch out his entire six-foot frame unless he miraculously figured out how to sleep standing up. (He made a mental note to ask Shikamaru how to accomplish this when he returned to the village.) The walls were concrete, probably at _least_ four feet thick, which was becoming the standard for holding cells in these troubled times. This was not good. It ruled out a _lot_ of his escape possibilities, like, say, kicking the next person who entered the cell through the wall. He'd have enjoyed that. Not that he _could_ kick them through the wall with his hands and feet bound in chakra enforced ropes and the heavy leather collar around his neck that was clearly sapping his chakra. Without the use of his limbs or chakra, Naruto was helpless. There was also the fact that he was in a _lot_ of pain from the interrogation techniques he'd been subjected to not an hour ago.

There was a hairline fracture in the wall he was propping himself up against, he noticed. Probably caused by tree roots pressing in from the outside. Which meant he was underground? Oh, joy. They'd probably even designed it so that the seams of the wall would leak when it rained heavily.

He sighed, blowing his unruly bangs out of his eyes as he contemplated what he could possibly do then winced as the warm gust of air hit his burned forehead. They'd taken his flak chunin vest, leaving him in only his metal mesh shirt and jonin pants and without his sandals.

Worse and worse.

His feet throbbed painfully, reminding him of what they'd done to try and extract information from him.

_**He was belted to a shiny metal table in a room containing only him; a cloaked man standing stoically in the corner, arms crossed (Naruto remembered him: he'd been a member of the search party that had found and captured him. He used ocular genjutsu to rival Sasuke's sharingan and Neji's byakugan, and had used it to great effect—Naruto had passed out after only a glance at his eyes.); a young boy, about age 10 or so; and a man standing over him, who was clearly going to be carrying out the 'interrogation.'**_

**_"Speak, Konoha bastard!" the man commanded, slapping his face (So _that_ was what had woken him). The place his hand had made contact with stung and Naruto gritted his teeth, determined not to even open his mouth. The man who was interrogating him (a very unpleasant looking fellow with one eye and long black hair tied back into a greasy ponytail at the base of his neck) growled with frustration._**

_**"Ryo, get the poker!" he snapped suddenly, startling Naruto.**_

_**The boy fled the room quickly, his blue eyes—so like Naruto's own—wide with fear and anxiety.**_

_**[Poker? Oh. Just like Ibiki warned—]**_

_**Naruto's thoughts were cut off as the boy, Ryo, returned moments later with an iron poker. The end was glowing red, and Naruto knew **_**exactly**_** what they were going to do.**_

_**He braced himself, but not quickly enough to stop the hiss of pain that slipped between his lips when hot metal met bare feet.**_

"_**Hurts, don't it?" the man said, licking his lips slowly, as if savoring a meal, and reminding the blonde strongly of Orochimaru. **_

_**The mental image combined with the pain and the smell of seared meat did not sit well with Naruto's stomach, and he turned his head to empty his stomach onto the floor.**_

"_**Pansy."**_

_**[No, I'm not.] Naruto resisted the urge to throw up again as the poker was rolled over the soles of his feet, creating blisters and filling the room with the stench of burned flesh.**_

_**The poker eventually moved from his feet to his legs, and then to his hands, (Naruto had found it difficult to maintain the same facial expression when the poker actually pierced his right hand from one side to the other, searing the wound closed even as it went through). The man had laughed at his body, sweaty from his efforts to remain still and not react. From his hands, it had moved to his chest, the man painstakingly poking Naruto's bare flesh through each individual gap in the metal mesh and actually causing the metal to fuse with his skin. Naruto had gripped the edge of the table he was belted to very tightly at this point with his left hand. His right hand was useless.**_

_**The man called for a fresh poker, and Ryo fetched it promptly before returning the old poker to whatever fire he'd pulled it from.**_

"_**Ready to talk yet? We'll fix up your hand for you. Before we kill you that is." the man whispered in his ear as the poker pressed itself, hissing, to his neck, making Naruto jump involuntarily.**_

_**Naruto's response was to spit in his face, which only served to make his interrogator angrier and resulted in the poker burning a stripe across his right eye, searing it closed. At this new pain, Naruto **_**had**_** cried out and he struggled to move his head away from the cause of the pain. The poker pressed down again, across his forehead and Naruto barely managed to stop the scream from escaping as the smell of burning hair and flesh met his nostrils. All that came out was a strangled gurgle.**_

_**The poker moved south again, toward his precious place, and Naruto's good eye widened. Grinning cheerfully, the man unzipped his jonin pants and slid them down past Naruto's hips, then pulled down his boxers as well.**_

_**[Oh, shit. Not that. Not that. Low down fucking BASTARD!!] Naruto screamed in his head, wriggling in vain against his bonds.**_

"_**Stop."**_

_**Both Naruto and the man looked in surprise at the cloaked man in the corner.**_

"_**Soshi, leave that be and find some other method to interrogate the prisoner." he commanded imperiously, before sweeping out of the room.**_

"_**You're lucky, boy." Soshi hissed unpleasantly, tossing the poker back to Ryo and leaving the room, presumably to find another tool of torture.**_

_**For a few minutes, Naruto was blissfully alone with the boy until Soshi returned, and the whole time, he was mentally thanking the cloaked man over and over in his head. Though he was still puzzled about why he'd intervened and why his voice sounded familiar to him...**_

_**After that, it was a long couple of hours while the man methodically broke each of Naruto's fingers, then the bones in his hands, all the while questioning him about his purpose in spying on their group. When that had shown no results, he'd begun to break larger bones. His ribs. His arms. His legs.**_

_**Naruto was more than certain that Soshi had cursed the air blue when he finally passed out from the pain.**_

Naruto had reawakened in this cell with his wounds all halfway healed, no doubt to encourage him to talk to relieve the pain that was still plaguing him. But he was _not_ going to talk. He'd stay silent if it killed him.

And they probably would.

Snapping back to reality, he pondered how he was going to escape, as weakened as he was at the moment. He would not give up. If any chance of escape came, he would take it. Provided it didn't involve him betraying Konoha.

Lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice the soft, tapping footsteps approaching the door until the key grated in the lock.

Naruto couldn't see the point in locking a door so heavy when the prisoner inside could hardly stand much less walk, but feigned sleep instantly, sliding to the floor curled as much as his sore ribs would allow and keeping his breathing deep and steady.

"Still a dobe, even after all these years, eh, Naruto?" his visitor said, in an icy voice that was so familiar Naruto found his heart racing. "Cut the act, I know you're awake."

A foot nudged Naruto's ribs, none too gently, and Naruto groaned before he could stop himself. His ribs were still very tender at the moment, and would be for a while, no matter whether they were fully healed or not.

Slowly, Naruto opened his good eye. The healer had not seen fit to heal any of the burns, so his right eye was still seared shut, and his metal mesh shirt was still melted to his skin. Which would probably prove bad for his health later. Not that that mattered right now, the torture had been bad for his health as well. Naruto struggled to get into a sitting position, but managed it in the end. He wasn't going to face his old rival lying down. Sasuke was standing over his battered body, arms crossed, the shadow of a smirk on his lips, as if he'd never abandoned Konoha eight years ago.

As if he hadn't broken Sakura's heart.

As if he hadn't tried to kill Naruto on more than one occasion only to leave him alive as a sort of divine 'punishment.'

As if nothing had changed since they'd been team 7.

"Sasuke." It was all he could say. All he _would_ say. He wanted nothing more to do with him after all he'd put them through.

The Uchiha cocked his head slightly, laughter in his eyes.

"You don't look happy to see me, dobe. Get tired of chasing after me?"

"I'm _not_ happy, teme!" Naruto spat. "I've had enough."

"Of what? For 7 years you chased me almost to the ends of the earth then stopped. I've been so lonely." Sasuke crouched down so that he could look Naruto in the eye.

Naruto rolled his good eye and looked away. Sasuke had his sharingan activated, and, from experience, he'd learned that looking into an Uchiha's sharingan meant trouble for him.

"I see you remember what I put you through in Tsukuyomi." a smile had finally appeared on his pale face, giving him the look of a man about to crush an insect on the ground simply for being there.

Naruto did not _want_ to remember, and he clamped his mouth shut. A look of anger flashed onto Sasuke's face, and he grabbed Naruto's chin roughly, forcing him to look at the bastard who'd caused him and Sakura so much grief. Naruto opened his mouth to yell an insult that would have made even the hardiest sailor turn pale, but couldn't get it out, because Sasuke had pressed his hand to Naruto's mouth and was giving him a look that told him Sasuke wanted him to shut up. His sharingan spun, making Naruto dizzy and he blinked hard, to find that his pain was suddenly gone. Vanished as though it had never existed.

"Wha—" Naruto spluttered, eyes widening.

"Got you in a genjutsu, dobe. That interrogation never happened, though it was supposed to make you talk. I had to keep up appearances, you know." Sasuke's familiar smirk was back on his lips.

Naruto frowned then looked himself over, using his hands as well as his eyes.

His chunin vest and turtleneck were back, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and the metal mesh shirt peeking out and covering his arms all the way to his wrists. The familiar weight of his hitai-ate on his forehead was back, as were his sandals.

"Why did you do that?" Naruto demanded, standing quickly. His hands and feet were no longer bound, as they had been in the genjutsu, though he was still in the same cell. He almost flinched when Sasuke straightened up as well. They were nearly the same height now, though Sasuke was only about an inch taller.

"Do I have to have a reason for everything I do, dobe?" Sasuke asked, one delicate eyebrow arching, silently asking why he was acting in such a rude manner.

"Bastard. I wouldn't be here at all if it weren't for you! You left us! You tried to kill me!"

"I haven't tried that yet now have I?" Sasuke deactivated his sharingan.

Blue eyes glared into onyx as Naruto attempted to find words that would convey his anger.

"The door's open, dobe. Get out." Sasuke said, turning on his heel and leaving.

For a few moments, Naruto gaped at the open door before his old best friend's words sank in and he took the opportunity given him.

When he returned to Konoha, all he wrote in the mission report was that the rumors were false, and Tsunade had left it at that, knowing that Naruto would stick to that story to the death and trusting him to not withhold anything vital to the village.

A day or so after his return, word reached Konoha that the organization Naruto had been spying on had all been killed and all that remained of the compound was a giant crater, ringed with ebony flames.

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_**A/N: This was not how it was going to go originally, but then again, things seldom go as planned. Hope you guys enjoyed! R&R!!**_


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